ON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 513 



physiology of the senses, to physiology proper, and to 

 such phenomena of psychical or inner life as can be 

 traced, not only in man, but also in the "brute creation. 

 He thus seems to have approached psychology with the 

 true instinct and methods of an exact student of nature. 

 In the course of years his psycho-physical studies took 

 more and more the character of an experimental psycho- 

 logy, and in the latest edition of his great work he 

 describes it as such, maintaining that the designation of 

 physiological psychology has rather a historical meaning. 1 



author of the ' History of Material- 

 ism,' Albert Laiige, does only scant 

 justice to the labours of the Eng- 

 lish school, J. S. Mill being, in 

 fact, the only English philosophical 

 writer of the middle of the 

 century who was appreciated in 

 Germany. The last twenty -five 

 years have entirely altered this 

 state of things. French and 

 American writers, such as M. 

 Ribot, Prof. M'Cosh, and more 

 recently Prof. James, treat im- 

 partially of the rival claims of 

 German and English thinkers. 

 ' Mind ' has preserved its fairness 

 in admitting contributions from 

 opposite sides ; and latterly there 

 has been started by the publishing 

 house of Frommann of Stuttgart, 

 under the editorship of Prof. 

 Falckenberg, a series of very use- 

 ful monographs on recent thinkers, 

 whose voluminous or scattered 

 writings make it difficult to arrive 

 at a comprehehsive and just ap- 

 preciation of the main drift of 

 their doctrine. Ever since some 

 provinces of philosophy were con- 

 quered by exact research, unity 

 of plan has been to a great ex- 

 tent sacrificed ; the natural science 

 of mind is becoming split up into 

 fragments like that of life. Prof. 

 Lasswitz has given us for the 

 first time a coherent account of 



VOL. II. 



Fechner's philosophy, and although 

 Prof. Wundt had already put forth 

 in his ' System der Philosophic ' 

 (1st ed., 1890) a statement of his 

 systematic views, the monograph by 

 Edmund Konig (1901) is very help- 

 ful in fixing the historical position 

 of Wundt and the genesis of 

 his doctrine. I refer to these 

 volumes for a bibliography of 

 the thinkers discussed. 



1 In the introduction to the 

 ' Physiologische Psychologie ' (4te 

 Aufl., vol. i. p. 9) Prof. Wundt 

 says, "The conception of experi- 

 mental psychology has been ex- 

 panded beyond its original limits, 

 as we now comprehend under it 

 not only those parts of psychology 

 which are directly accessible to 

 experiment, but the whole of 

 psychology ; as it makes a direct 

 use of the experimental method 

 wherever this is possible, and an 

 indirect use in all other instances 

 through applying the results gained 

 in the former, and through render- 

 ing internal observation more acute. 

 . . . The designation of physio- 

 logical psychology, which originated 

 in the peculiar historical anteced- 

 ents of our science, is one-sided. 

 . . . The centre of gravity of the 

 experimental method lies in this, 

 that it alone makes reliable inner 

 observation possible." 



2 K 



